Babe
by sleapyGazelle
Summary: "Lance calls everyone 'babe' until he starts crushing on Keith. Then he only calls Keith 'babe.' One day Lance says 'hey babe,' and Keith responds. And everyone is like ? but Keith and Lance just go along with it." Prompt by tumblr user @prettyguardianxsailormoon


"I just can't get it to work, and Coran's busy, so do _you_ have any idea how to change the settings?"

Lance stood with his hands in his pockets, waiting, as Pidge scrutinized the tablet he'd found. It looked pretty cool but emitted shrieking noises every time he tried to interact with it. The sound was accompanied by a text alert, which was in Altean, so it was no use. At least to Lance.

"I don't recognize _all_ these words, but I think we have to…" Pidge trailed off, muttering to herself as she poked around the screen. "Got it!" With a look of triumph, she handed the tablet back to Lance.

"Hey, that was quicker than I expected!" Lance opened a few apps, and when the device remained blissfully silent, he turned a bright smile to Pidge. "Thanks babe!"

Pidge nodded, already turning her attention back to her computer.

Keith, who'd been passing by, heard the tail end of the conversation and stopped to ask, "Babe?" He wondered if that was a thing now.

"Yeah he calls everyone that after a while," Pidge replied without looking away from her work.

 _Everyone huh?_ Now that Keith thought about it, it seemed true enough. There was that time Lance shouted "you were awesome out there, babe" to Hunk over the comms when he'd taken down a particularly aggressive Galra fighter; and a reassuring "you'll kill it, babe" to Allura when she was worried about a diplomatic meeting. But Keith had yet to be at the receiving end of such an endearment. Interesting.

The more time went on, the more obvious it became that Lance pointedly did not call Keith 'babe.' He pretty much threw the word 'around like one would 'buddy'—except when it came to Keith. Not that Keith was bothered by this or wanted Lance to call him that. On the contrary, he was relieved at not having to deal with _more_ of Lance's weirdness. The exclusion was just a bit weird was all.

The first time it happened, Lance looked a bit peaky afterwards. He said it casually when Keith took down a high level training bot while dual-wielding his bayard and Marmora blade. A simple "nice job, babe!" which was followed by shifty eyes and a slight flush. Keith, at a loss for words, simply stared at Lance. But Keith had been told more than once that his blank look looked more like a death stare, which could explain why Lance then ran out of the room.

The next few times, Lance held himself together a lot better. He was getting more confident at this; though Keith couldn't figure out why Lance needed confidence with _him_ when he seemed over-comfortable doing it to the others.

Speaking of which, Lance…had kind of stopped doing it to the others. Keith first noticed it when Lance thanked Shiro by name for helping him learn combat moves. Then he praised Hunk for almost perfectly imitating the taste of empanadas but without the nickname. Keith wondered at first if Lance had outgrown it. But then after a mission, Lance threw a "nice flying, babe" over his shoulder, and Keith was left staring once more.

And then it kind of became a thing: Lance calling him 'babe,' Keith ignoring it or frowning at most, and the others telling Lance off for being too obvious with his crush.

The crush thing threw Keith off at first; he thought it was a joke. But then he noticed Lance blushing furiously and not denying the accusation. And that got him thinking. It made sense, he supposed. If he, Keith, could harbor feelings for the dork who went from 'rival' to friend in no time at all, was it so hard to believe that said dork could have those feelings too? And just because Keith was adamantly refusing to admit how he felt, that didn't mean Lance had to be just as dumb.

Keith made up his mind. The next time an opportunity presented itself, he'd let Lance know he liked him back. In the same way Lance had let _him_ know. By calling him…babe. Easy as that.

So when they were all training together and Lance called out "hey babe?" from across the deck, Keith turned around with a 'yes, babe?' at the tip of his tongue. But when he saw Lance's cheery face and realized what he was about to say in the company of the entire team, he lost his courage halfway through.

"Yes?" he replied. Dammit. He was a _soldier_ for crying out loud.

But even though he'd chickened out, the rest of the team stopped what they were doing and gawked at him as if he'd just sprouted purple Galra ears.

"What?" he demanded of no one in particular.

"You responded," Hunk noted. "You've never responded before."

Oh. He chanced a look at Lance, who was wide-eyed. But when he met Keith's gaze, he squared his shoulders and stepped forward.

"Yeah so what? I was talking to him, wasn't I? Why wouldn't he respond?" And with that he came over to Keith and started showing him a new feature he'd unlocked on his bayard, some sort of tranquilizer rifle.

Keith was only half listening, his mind running a mile a minute. Lance was chattering happily, and the others were slowly getting back to their training. He refocused on Lance, tuning in to his excitement, and made another decision: he liked where this was going. And next time, he'd bring out the big guns and respond properly. How hard could it be?


End file.
